I think I figured out why Alexander was so poorly received.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

No divebombs. Needz moar divebombs!!!

[Dualgunner]

Be-doo be-doo.

WHOOOSH

Goddamnit a dps was 3 inches outside of the pit and now both healers are dead.

[Nalien]

It's mechanically less interesting than Coil? Absolutely. Just compare Faust with ADS... Both are effectively DPS checks, but ADS used to involve teamwork in a Silence rotation for High Voltage. Not the biggest thing in the world, but that just further adds to how pathetic Faust is... I really cannot believe they opened with Faust, possibly the worst first impression of a raid possible...

I'd also say the story is significantly weaker... Just another "Stop teh Primal!" plot, the Illuminati aren't particularly compelling (I think they should probably have been Hildibrand-level comic relief more than anything...) and I don't really care about any of the characters, since they just show up for the first time in the quest... Actually I was almost worried about Brayflox, but that point when no where... The whole plot just comes out of the blue at the end of the main scenario... Compare that to Coil... That plot was there from the very start of the game (before that even, "What happened to Bahamut?" was a question being asked right after 1.0s servers closed down...), as were the characters, granted Alisae wasn't great, but her relationship with Louisoix was presented in the main scenario and is far more compelling that... Whatever Mide is up to? Perhaps if Mide had been introduced earlier, or all that stuff I can't even be asked to remember because it was just words in a short quest to string the raid together, was introduced during 3.0, rather than during 3.05, the plot would at least be more compelling...

Also Twisters, need more Twisters, and "F*ck You" Dreadknights. For a raid sold as "You're fighting inside Alexander!", the environments are particularly dull, too... T5 we were fighting on Bahamuts hand for crying out loud... We're inside Alexander (giggity) now, and it's just... Boring... Musics great though, much better than Coil, save a few turns I shouldn't have to specify.

[Miscreant]

Stuff

Way to take a joke and make it serious....

[Evangela]

boring story, boring gears, boring BGMs, boring atmosphere, and boring boss fights.

[Jamein]

Way to take a joke and make it serious....

Savage 3+ is mechanically harder than Coil, Faust is trash, no one cares about trash...

You think? Personally I feel they're harder DPS checks/Healing checks and at least have given tanks more to think about than coil ever did, but in terms of actual mechanics I still think second coil has the title of hardest actual mechanics (pre-nerf and pre-overgearing) especially for fights like tT7/T9. Final Coil was pretty mechanically easy though I'll agree on that.

Course what I think Alexander REALLY needs, is pre-nerf T5 twisters. For added WTF.

AND BEE'S IT NEEDS MORE DEMON WALL BEE'S.

[Selli]

No divebombs. Needz moar divebombs!!!

"We heard the complaints in the community about there being a significant difference in difficulty between A2S and A3S. To lessen this burden, we added Dive Bombs to every wave of adds in A2S. Please look forward to it."

I cri evritime.

[FeliAiko]

Alex might've been better served as being the 24-man raid, more I think about it. Compared to Coil the whole 'vibe' of it (antagonists, plot, bosses, gear design) seem less compelling. Also the sense of traversing through a large, active construct would have been better represented.

[HorseBoots]

Course what I think Alexander REALLY needs, is pre-nerf T5 twisters. For added WTF..

Jesus christ man... Alexander already has enough latency problems as it is, that's going too far.

In other news I got to see Hand of Parting give Atrophy with the hands literally stacked on top of each other and only hitting for 803 damage last night. It was great. Great! GREAT!

(It wasn't great, this raid is awful.)

[Nalien]

Way to take a joke and make it serious....

Hey, SE started it...

Alexander and the Illuminati had potential for a lot of humor, did they offer any though? Nope. Instead they cut to Mide touching her scar as though that's meant to be something deep and significant.

I got a chuckle out of the Illuminati boss having a cat minion, but they did nothing with that. It's a throw away scene, when it feels like it should be the set up for some Bond-villain parody. They've gone for some bizarre 50/50 split with the comic relief and serious plot for Alexander... We'll beat the Goblins, they'll blow up in what I guess is meant to be a humorous fashion, then a character we literally just met will show up, act like they actually did something, and we'll leave. Further reminding us that these aren't raids, they're static encounters... Were Alexander a raid, A1 through to A4 would be one single instance, Praetorium is more of a raid than Coil and Alexander in that respect...

Had they gone full on with the comedy, Alexander could have at least had some charm to it. Had they gone full on with the plot, perhaps it might have at least been interesting. Instead we have some odd mashup that reads like bad fan fiction... They really should have gone full comic relief with this, some of the mechanics certainly lean that way; the mounts in A2, or getting sucked into the vents in A4, even A3s jiggle-butt. It's not much, and they could have done more, but it would have at least given the raid some damn charm if nothing else...